Video: Noted ex-terrorist “appalled” by Obama’s Afghanistan surge

Actually, Ayers is right about the timetable being a sham. Near as I can tell from the administration’s many conflicting statements, in practice the July 2011 deadline to start withdrawing means this: At least one American soldier will absolutely, positively be redeployed that month — the date is “etched in stone,” after all — but any more beyond that will depend entirely on conditions on the ground when the Pentagon conducts its review next December. Some timetable. In fact, Obama actually went ahead and authorized Gates to boost the number of surge troops from 30,000 to 35,000 if he deems it necessary, i.e. if our more feckless NATO allies start bugging out. The “deadline” may be a gesture of weakness to appease the left, but it’s an almost entirely cosmetic one and, after all, he has to live with these nuts. If he had 65 percent support for escalation, that would be one thing, but under the circumstances Pelosi et al. need some sort of fig leaf to approve funding. And that’s what he gave them.